The Walker School: An education-based model

Critical issues for practice in residential treatment: The view from within.

“…This is not to say that there is no theory involved. Most residential treatment programs profess what Trieschman (1976) called a “unifying something” based on one of three useful conceptual paradigms: 1) classic, psychodynamic formulations of the therapeutic milieu emphasizing the remediation of psychopathology through corrective relationships and the therapeutic exploitation of life events (Bettleheim & Sylvester, 1948; Bettleheim, 1950; Redl & Wineman, 1957; Trieschman, Whittaker, & Brendtro, 1969; Mayer & Blum, 1971); 2) revisionist formulations of the therapeutic milieu which deemphasize the psychiatric understanding of troubled child and youth behavior, stress the importance of connecting the treatment environment to families and communities, and promote the teaching of life skills as the primary goal of treatment (Hobbs, 1966; Whittaker, 1975, 1979); or 3) highly specific cognitive behavioral approaches to the design of the treatment environment (Wolfe, Phillips, & Fixsen 1974; Vorath & Brendtro, 1974).…”

Teaching Competence in Residential Group Care

“…Unfortunately, despite descriptions of a few education-based programs (Adams, 1980;Hobbs, 1966;Trieschman, 1976;Trieschman, Whittaker and Brendtro, 1969;Wolf, Phillips and Fixsen, 1974) very few programs have attempted to evaluate clients' acquisition of specific competency skills (Velasquez and McCubbin, 1980). More important, only Wolf and his colleagues developing the Achievement Place model document extensive empirical evaluation of differential teaching techniques (cf.…”